


birds of a feather

by xioying



Series: anarchist on the dream smp [4]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Dream Smp, Gen, Post-Manberg Festival on Dream Team SMP (Video Blogging RPF)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-17 20:00:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28730838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xioying/pseuds/xioying
Summary: After Tommy, Techno really wasn’t too keen on keeping another guest.But Ranboo was very much not like Tommy and much more similar to Techno himself. So he’d allow it, he supposed.
Series: anarchist on the dream smp [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2080539
Comments: 4
Kudos: 199





	birds of a feather

**Author's Note:**

> Canon context: Ranboo left L’Manberg, Phil asked him if he needed a place to stay. Ranboo also has had hallucinations of Dream’s voice while he’s in his panic room.
> 
> Less canon but still canon: Techno has said his stream chat are canonical voices in his head.

“I let him stay here. Is that okay?”

Techno eyed his visitor up and down carefully. “Sure..?”

Philza breathed a sigh of relief, along with Ranboo—said visitor—who took it a step further by grabbing Techno’s hands and squeezing them in appreciation. “Thank you!”

“You’re welcome.” Techno shook his hands away.

Philza lifted and tipped his hat. “Well, I’m heading back to L’Manberg. There’s probably nothing left there that I need, but I’m going to check the house anyway.”

“Alright,” Techno said, waving to Philza as he left. Only ten seconds later did he realise Phil was not bringing the strange enderman visitor along with him, and the strange enderman visitor was still standing on his porch, hands folded in front of him and waiting patiently. Techno took a step back and sideways, allowing Ranboo space to enter. “You can come in.”

“Thank you,” Ranboo said again, dipping his head as he entered so he could fit through the door frame.

Techno was not sure if he appreciated that he had to crane his neck up to look at Ranboo.

It wasn’t as though this was his first time talking to Ranboo. They’d spoken several times on non-hostile terms, and Ranboo had even kindly offered to return his stolen armour (with no peer pressure involved… whatsoever). As far as the fools in L’Manberg went, Ranboo was one of the more decent fellows. _Except_ , Ranboo had been friends with Tommy, and Tommy had just betrayed him yesterday…

The thought of it left a bitter taste in Techno’s mouth.

...Tommy had just betrayed him yesterday, and, birds of a feather flock together, so there was no telling if Ranboo would do the same. Besides, Ranboo’s allegiance was blurry but he _was_ still affiliated with L’Manberg, and nothing good ever came out of L’Manberg.

As Ranboo looked around the house with childlike curiosity, Techno surveyed him cautiously.

Ranboo turned to Techno slowly. “Why do you have an enderman here?”

“He’s my roommate. I split the rent with him.”

“Oh,” Ranboo said, not questioning it at all. He rubbed the back of his neck. “Um, do you have..?”

Techno raised a brow.

“Food?”

Techno pointed to his chests in the far back. “I have steak in those.”

When Ranboo turned his neck to stare at the chests, fidgeting awkwardly, Techno walked up to the chests himself, flicking the lock open and rummaging for the packets of meat. He withdrew one and held it out in front of Ranboo pointedly.

Ranboo took it slowly and crinkled the plastic between his fingers. Only after Techno turned away to close the chest lid again did he hear Ranboo tearing it open.

“Thank you, again, I’m just—” Ranboo tilted his head down at the steak, pushing it up closer towards the opening. “I’m just tired. And hungry.”

“That’s understandable.” Techno was always tired. Never hungry, though. He was always prepared with enough food. At the very least, Ranboo wasn’t demanding or gobbling down his golden apples. Techno was quite done with that.

“I eat weirdly,” Ranboo mumbled, shifting his jaw in the isolated way that endermen did.

“I feed my roommate all the time,” Techno reassured, stepping back around Ranboo, closer to the door. “I know how endermen eat.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Ranboo unhinged his jaw and devoured the steak in one bite.

Silently, Techno turned and watched the potions on his brewing stand bubble.

It was only a few seconds until Ranboo spoke up again. “Techno?”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry to ask again, but—do you have any spare wood?”

* * *

“Why do you want to stay here?”

Techno _did_ have spare wood, and Ranboo had taken them while uttering another string of gratitude, and when Techno followed him outside, he found Ranboo building his own shed a little ways off from where Techno’s home was. Prior to Tommy, Techno had been impartial to guests (who asked, unlike Dream), but post-Tommy, he _really_ didn’t feel like having anyone in his house longer than necessary. So he appreciated what Ranboo was doing, but Techno wasn’t _that_ heartless. Ranboo’s home had just been blown up, and Ranboo was a fairly decent person. He offered the dog house, which was, in retrospect, still pretty heartless, but it was shelter nonetheless.

After politely declining, Ranboo began stacking the wooden planks and nailing at them. Techno watched him inquisitively rotate the planks at different angles before offering help to build it again. This time, Ranboo did not reject.

Ranboo blinked at him, then looked back down at the wood. His pace slowed. “There’s nothing back in L’Manberg.”

Techno pressed his lips together, knocking on a nail head. “I know I blew up L’Manberg and all, but there’s still places to live nearby, I think. And they’ll rebuild it again, I’m sure. They just never learn.”

In a hollow voice: “No, there’s _nothing_ back there.”

Techno looked at him, then continued toiling away at the planks.

Ranboo’s work stopped short altogether. “Besides… there’s this _thing_ there.” He weaved his fingers together, clasping and unclasping his hands, palms butting against each other. Techno watched him in silence. “You see, there’s this—it’s a room. It’s a panic—it’s just a room, but when I’m there, there’s this… someone talks to me. But no one else is there. You know what I mean? It’s like a—” he chewed on his bottom lip, jagged fangs showing, “—hallucination. And they say horrible things. They’re a _liar_. They keep telling me things that just didn’t happen.”

For a moment, only the sound of the hammerhead hitting a nail passed.

“They’re a liar,” Ranboo said again, crossing his legs and then scooping them up so that his knees were pressed against his chest. “You believe me, right? I didn’t do any of those things. They just kept lying to me that I did.”

Techno did not look up to meet Ranboo’s eyes. After a few wordless seconds, Techno sighed.

“I have some of those too.”

“Hmm?”

“Voices,” Techno answered dryly, “in the head.”

Ranboo perked up.

“They say weird things sometimes. Like… _E_ …” Ranboo’s shoulders relaxed, and he managed a short, choked laugh. “But you see, Ranboo, sometimes they also demand blood.”

Ranboo shrunk back. “Oh.”

“It doesn’t matter, though.” Techno dropped the hammer and stretched his arms. “They’re not me. I’m only responsible for the decisions that _I_ make.”

“Hm…” Ranboo’s shoulders sagged, then he contemplated, then he smiled anyway in the end. “Thank you, Techno.”

“Yeah, sure. Whatever.”

This kid had so many problems.

Techno didn’t like problematic children. But at the very least, he mused as he watched Ranboo resume his work on his shed, he was much more tolerable than whatever Tommy was. Maybe he would be betrayed. Maybe he _was_ going to be stabbed in the back by yet another L’Manberg refugee, but he was willing to give Ranboo some benefit of the doubt. They were, after all, more alike than he’d initially thought.

And birds of a feather usually flocked together, didn’t they?

**Author's Note:**

> this could've been written a lot better, but I needed to post something
> 
> edit I figured it out. endermen don't unhinge their jaws. they simply can move their upper jaw. I'm not rewriting anything but that is terrifying
> 
> And please don't user subscribe I'm not going to post solely Dream SMP fics, I created a series for Dream SMP fics specifically so you can subscribe to that instead...


End file.
